A Deep Seeded Affair
By Julie Almeter

A recent day at the office gave me an opportunity to have a personal conversation with our director, Theresa Snow. We talked a little about the project Salvation Farms has become and a lot about the direction that Theresa has given it.

The work at Salvation Farms is infused with emotion and it’s not uncommon for a day at the office to be tinted with philosophical conversation. Today I venture a big question: “Theresa, why do you do this?” She sorts through a batch of gleaned winter storage crops while we talk, her weathered hands turning each beet, carrot, turnip, and cabbage over as she carefully checks for damage, cutting out soft spots and saving a wholesome share of each vegetable. It is in the many details of this project that Theresa’s deep consideration fuses with a profound reverence for life. What emerges is a passionate leader with a pronounced voice that speaks of awareness and the capability of our community to make its food systems more sustainable and quite possibly our lives.

Why? Cause it feels right. That is the short answer. If you want to hold a major philosophical discussion…that might be for another time. Part of my involvement is perhaps self serving, in that I am my own boss here, I haven’t been paid, I’m just able to do it. I’m also doing what I really want instead of selling my time in a job elsewhere. I value farms. I’ve come to work with food because it’s beautiful and it
makes us feel good.

Sometimes I wonder if she’ll have a market garden of her own soon. But as we work through financial records and budgets, I realize, without having to keep track, something happens every time I see Theresa: She says, I don’t like money, it doesn’t make sense to me, and this is why I give food away! It is not a slight accident that Theresa came to this work. She talks about growing up in Morrisville, Vermont and how living in this area now is an evolving experience. I can remember my mother and father having pigs in the backyard. I remember picking peas and raspberries. I realized that there were many ways we could have chosen to live. Swayed by the influence of an emerging mainstream culture—I chose to take a different path. The experience of college cleaned the glasses through which I view society. Sterling certainly helped me recreate a connection with home. With the tools I gathered there, along with the great agricultural experience of several farms, my life now is answering questions I’ve long had about our lifestyles and the natural world. There are many social ills and many ways we might improve our society. Looking at the way we live and being conscious about our resources is helping to establish relationships and strengthen the community around issues that matter. I would rather be part of the solution.

Before Salvation Farms, I knew something was missing in my life and in my community. I knew my personal needs, and I felt irresponsible for not educating others about those primary essentials of life. There is a way we can live that can be good to the earth and ourselves and our children—and that way begins with food.